Seventeen qualified poker players arrived at Kabobs in Glasser, New Jersey, on what turned out to be a nice day on the lake for our Destination Las Vegas New Jersey Championship. The game swiftly got started at 2 pm, with 13 players starting with 7,500 in chips and four double qualifiers starting with 15,000. Arnold Sikking from The Rail in South Jersey was the first to exit the game followed by Morgan Dunlap and Dan Marion after about two hours in. Bob Winegar, last season's winner, was taken out of the game by John Jackson who flopped quad 8s shortly after the other three went out.

Andrew Downing from Grand View, Texas was the big winner in the National Final at Caesars Palace, winning the $5,000 main event seat package and bringing home the title of National Champion to Texas...It was his first trip to Vegas!  Andrew gathered a commanding chip lead down the stretch and finished off Wade Kyser and Clay Lipke in the end.  The tournament featured "the best of the best", a field of 23 players who each won a trip to Las Vegas.  Over $12,000 worth of buy-ins were awarded and every player received a minimum of a $220 entry.  Three players went on to cash in the events...

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For a guy who owns a successful seamless gutters and insulation business, poker is just another way for Clay Lipke to keep his mind as sharp as his business sense. And with three Minnesota Poker League state championship prize packages under his belt, one national championship win and a cash-out in a 2007 Heartland Poker Tour event, his poker playing skills seems to mirror his business acumen.To date, Lipke has managed to win more than $16,500 in cash and prizes playing FREE poker in the Minnesota Poker League and this weekend he hopes to add another chunk of cash to that total during our Fall Spectacular National Championship at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. We sat down with the free poker stud earlier this week to find out what makes his poker style what it is.